The arrival of network technologies, such as the Internet and the World-Wide Web (WWW), has resulted in the availability of vast quantities of multimedia content. Multimedia contents are available in digital archives, in broadcast data-streams, in personal and professional databases, and the like. The value of this vast quantity of multimedia contents depends upon the ease in which it can be found, retrieved, accessed, filtered and managed.
Subjective information about a multimedia content is an important factor influencing the selection of the content. Subjective information may include ratings or opinions provided by one or more persons on a multimedia content. Selection of a multimedia content based on other people's opinions, i.e., third party reviews, is a method commonly referred to as social filtering.
Social filtering methods are commonly employed at internet websites. Users at a website provide details of their preferences in a certain domain, for example, buying books or music CDs. The users are then recommended certain products based on their preferences and the products purchased by other users with similar preferences.
Media, such as television programs and movies, are often selected using social filtering methods also. In selecting television programs, reference is often made to program ratings found in TV GUIDE or in newspapers. Movie selections are often made by referring to reviews penned by critics whose interests most closely match the viewers.
Although conventional social filtering methods are quite useful for selecting multimedia contents, they have a number of limitations. One limitation is that subjective information about a multimedia content, as found in printed materials, on the internet, or in electronic program guides, is not directly linked to the content. Consequently, user-preference based automatic selection or filtering of content is made difficult. Another limitation is that the author of the subjective information is often anonymous. For example, the authors of subjective information found in local TV GUIDES or electronic program guides (EPGs) available from service providers is typically not provided. Hence, a viewer cannot be assured that his or her viewing preferences match those of the person(s) who rated the programs. Still another limitation involves the internet or in interactive television applications, where no mechanism is provided for choosing from multiple reviews of a single content. This is due to the lack of a mechanism for linking the subjective information directly to the content. Thus, users have no choice in determining which source of subjective information they wish to receive to enable their content selection.